Urawa Reds have terminated the contract of Serbian manager Mihailo Petrovic after the 2-0 defeat to Consadole Sapporo on Sunday.
This loss marked the club’s disappointing run of form, which slumped the team to the eighth place in the league table.
Coach Takafumi Hori will temporarily take over first-team managerial duties from the 59-year-old Petrovic.
This is the second time Hori takes over Urawa Reds as caretaker manager. He was in charge of the team for the last two months of the 2011 season after Zeljko Petrovic was dismissed and helped the club avoid relegation from the first division.
As a player, Hori appeared in 188 J1-League games, mainly with Reds, and scored 14 goals.
With 14 games remaining this season, Reds are currently eighth in the J1 standings, 12 points behind first-place Cerezo Osaka.
On the contrary to the poor performance at the domestic league, Urawa have qualified for the quarter-finals of this season’s Asian Champions League. They will meet fellow J-League side Kawasaki Frontale in late August.